OMB's to-do list

Industry leaders and watchdog groups around Washington, D.C., are clearly interested in seeing the Office of Management and Budget push ahead with the President's Management Agenda, despite recent changes in top leadership. Here are some of the recommendations they have for incoming OMB managers:

1. Fill out the rest of the new team quickly. Hire qualified people who will champion the Bush administration's policies, and give those people unstinting support.

2. Define the agenda. The best course, according to some observers, is to keep the President's Management Agenda intact. But if the new team chooses another approach, OMB officials need to clearly define what stays and what goes.

3 Get serious about e-government funding. The administration must continue pushing Congress to provide money for cross-agency e-government initiatives.

4. Communicate clearly with industry. If OMB officials truly view vendors as business partners, they must treat them as such.

5. Don't stop pressuring agencies to produce business cases and create enterprise architectures. As difficult as it is for everyone involved, agencies must learn to discuss programs in terms of investments and measurable results.